[Haskell-cafe] heterogeneous container smart constructor question

[Zoran Bošnjak]

The example I gave was simplified. A real problem contains several other complications which makes this simple solution not practical.

There will be some generated code with several dozen of such cases (schemas). I want to keep them all in one GADT, such that I can use common code to manipulate them. This is why EList was introduced for 'Extended' container.

Another problem comes from some other container types which I did not mention before. I already have mapping from
IList to other container types (not mentioned in my mail), like 

grp1 :: Group '[0, 1, ...]
grp1 = mkGroup (Item @0 &: Item @1 ... &: nil)

In my case, the IList seems like universal data type to construct other items (as long as types are properly aligned). It's very convenient from application writer perspective.

So, if at all possible, I would like to map from IList to EList.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Henning Thielemann" <lemming at henning-thielemann.de>
To: "Zoran Bošnjak" <zoran.bosnjak at via.si>
Cc: "haskell-cafe" <haskell-cafe at haskell.org>
Sent: Tuesday, September 5, 2023 5:09:48 PM
Subject: Re: [Haskell-cafe] heterogeneous container smart constructor question

On Tue, 5 Sep 2023, Zoran Bošnjak wrote:

> Dear haskellers,
> I am trying to add some type safety to the program in the following situation:
>
> There are some distinct 'Item t' types which come in groups. That is: 
> 'EList' container can contain either:

> - items 0,1
> - items 0,1,2,3
> - items 0,1,2,3,4,5,6

What about a solution in Haskell 98:

(T0, T1, Maybe (T2, T3, Maybe (T4, T5, T6)))

or with custom data types:

data ItemsA = ItemsA T0 T1 (Maybe ItemsB)
data ItemsB = ItemsB T2 T3 (Maybe ItemsC)
data ItemsC = ItemsC T4 T5 T6

?